A Small Landscape

Here's a piece I was working on today. Not sure if I'll stitch in some dried grasses or not. I'm not looking forward to winter but this piece was started last year and put away unfinished.  Once framed, it should be a good one for the Christmas Craft Fair in November.

I used some of my hand dyed satin for the sky. Satin dyes well and gives a shimmer to my skies. The snow is a heavy organza and hand stitched to the base. It is easy to manipulate with needle and thread. The tree, which is made from burlap, is also hand stitched to the background. I used Sulky Opalescent Sliver thread to tack down the branches. The tiny stitches sparkle like bits of ice on them.

The mat (just laid in place) is suppose to be a bright white. I usually use a black metal frame that is custom made to fit my pieces.

Matted 5 x 7

Art Cards for Summer

I jumped from winter into summer (wishful thinking). This has been another freezing but sunny day. My focus was to finish some art cards. The backgrounds had been painted ages ago and just needed free motion greenery and then flowers.

Pearl cotton was put in the bobbin of my machine and green bobbin thread on the top. The pieces were than stitched upside down. I added the flowers by hand. It's hard to tell from the photo but some  of the flowers were stitched on organza and others were hand done on dissolvable stabilizer. I laid one of  them on a card to show what they will be like. I will sign and number each one.

Chiffon

A few days ago I purchased several pieces of chiffon at Fabricville. They had a sale of buy one, get two free. Not one to pass up a bargain . . . ! I bought several colours as I liked the patterns and figured they might be useful for foliage and flowers. I hadn't stitched much chiffon before with free motion and I wasn't disappointed as it worked the same as organza. It was also easy to burn with the stencil cutter. Now I have a wider range of colours to use for making foliage and flowers. I thought I had three pieces of green but when I got home the limy green I really wanted wasn't there. It had stripes like the pink in the corner of the photo. Guess I have to take another trip to the store. This time I'll make sure the bolts are left on the table before someone quickly puts them back. I usually check to see that I have the fabrics I want but this time I didn't! 

• Chiffon Applique. Ruth O'Leary Textile Art
• Beads made from Chiffon & Threads. Carolyn Saxby Mixed Media Textile Art
• Textile Art - Chiffon. Klare Poelchau
• Chiffon is Blooming in January. Diana Trout
• Craft Projects using Chiffon

Enjoy!

Hancock's Fabrics

Yesterday we took a short trip to Crystal Lake for lunch. It's about a 30 minute drive from the KOA where we have our motor home parked. As we were driving along looking at the sights (after our lunch), I happened to notice a sign saying 'Fabrics'! Hancock's Fabrics was the place. I haven't been to one of their stores in several years. Check out their free project's page. Forty five minutes later. . . yes, it was a profitable trip to say the least.

I hit a 50% off on most of the stuff I purchased. Have a look at some of the fabrics I got. As you can see, most of the fabrics were batiks as I use them when making my 3-D fish. This time, I was looking for some unusual patterns that I can't get home. However, the first fabric is a Christmas piece that caught my eye. I have no idea what I'll do with it - yet!

The last photo is of lime green organza, black tulle with sparkles all over and a multi coloured piece of netting. I already have a very small piece of this netting that I bought in Newfoundland over ten years ago. I use bits and pieces of it when making some of my 'fantasy fabrics'. Needless to say, I have been using it sparingly. Now I have a whole new length to use. The black tulle will be used as an overlay for surface design on fabric and the lime green organza will find its way as foliage in some piece of wall art.

I'm looking forward to my next fabric store - wherever that will be.

Quidi Vidi - Finished At Last!

I've been working on a commissioned piece for the last month. It has been a bit challenging as I was unsure where I was going with it. The cliffs are dyed cheesecloth over hand dyed cotton. Free motion stitching with a smoke coloured invisible thread was used to give more texture in the background. I used this method for the mountains in my quilted piece, Western Brook Gorge (scroll down). The shed is broadcloth. This fabric isn't as heavy as cotton and very easy to fold without the bulk. The windows are cut out with grey organza over black fabric to give the look of glass. The water is black organza over black cotton. Some black tulle was used for shadows.  If you go HERE you will see a photo of this scene before any renovations were made on the building.

Latest Work

I just finished another piece of wall art. It's a donation for a silent auction later in May. At this time, I'm just showing a small corner of the piece. The 'rock' is silk that was printed from my computer. Refer HERE for information on printing onto fabric. The daisies were embroidered individually and hand stitched in place. The orange flowers are French knots. In the completed landscape there is a hand dyed sky, hills and a large tree with foliage. The skeleton tree was thread painted onto organza. Foliage was added after it was placed on the background.

Back Garden 05 - Work In Progress

Yesterday was a marathon day for working on this piece. This morning I put some of the last hand embroidery stitches in place. I have to do a bit more machine stitching on some foilage and it will be finished - well, the framing still has to be done!  Here's a bit of yesterdays progress. I wanted to add poppies to the garden. In the summer, it is loaded with them along the fence and over into the corner. They migrated from the garden behind this one. I decided to take a short cut in the top photo by making the poppies from red silk with French knots for the centers. But they did not look right so back to the sewing machine. I experimented with free motion stitching on red organza. I'm pleased with the outcome. I'm not looking for photo realistic flowers but representations of them. The daisies were all hand done on a wash away interfacing and hand stitched in place. I've used daisies like these in a number of my landscapes. The fence is from white cotton that I painted over with white paint. I found that the fabric before painting is transparent and that wouldn't do for a 'wooden' fence.

Back Garden 03 - Work in Progress

Here is a bit more of my progress on the Back Garden art piece. Part of  today was spent stitching trees and foilage on green organza. Rocks as well as flowers will be part of the piece. The rock fabric beside the tree is printed onto silk using an inkjet printer. I take photos of rocks among other things. This particular rock was taken at Cape Spear a few years ago.

Work in Progress # 4

I have most of the building construction completed except for some surface additions. Most of my time today was spent stitching trees. The first photo was an experiment. In the second photo, the same tree skeleton was used with various bits of organza foliage put in place. It worked out well and I may use it. However, I like the tree still in the hoop. I added some foliage before cutting it out. Extra bits of foliage will be added to the back and front to give dimension.

You can see more trees in the last photo. They are not in a permanent placement yet and extra foliage will be added when stitched to the background.

Work in Progress # 3

Update photos:
Check out here for more details on making the foliage. I spent a lot of time making the green stuff but it works great to give a realistic look to the work.

Making greenery for the art piece.

Work in Progress # 2

I have been working on the row house piece mentioned in the November 9 post. This photo (showing the autumn version) does not appear in Fire Fox but shows in Internet Explorer. I will be doing the summer version with lots of trees. The work is going slowly as I am painting in some of the finer building details. The following photos show bits and pieces of the overall composition. I am using Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 as well as Heat n Bond Lite stabilizers in the construction. I have lots of foilage to make as well as stitch the tree trunks and branches.  This will be added as needed.

L. Z. Products

During the last week of my Chicago visit, I was given a business card by a friend of my daughter. It was for L. Z. Products, a hugh textile discount outlet. I didn't think I would get there this trip as it was a long bus ride away and the weather was hot. However, my husband asked if there was something I wanted to do before leaving the city! Big mistake! HA! So of course, I got to shop at this three level store housed in an old brick factory. It was quite a large shop. I had never been in such a space as this before - three floors. There were rolls of fabrics on the walls and on free standing displays. Many of them were colour coordinated . One room had every type of trim/fringe/tassels/ribbons imaginable while another contained drapery material. There was also lots of different upholstery and cushion fabrics. I didn't see much in the way of quilter's cotton except a collection of African prints. But then, I really didn't get to see everything this trip. My husband decided to drop in as it was too hot to wait in the vehicle. There was lots of prom dress fabrics, glittery tulle/sparkly organza - the kind of stuff I like to use in my art work. I did manage to buy some of that kind of fabric. I will definitely go back to this spot on my next visit.

Work in Progress: # 5 Chimneys

I have made a little bit of progress with the picture. Yesterday I made a few chimneys. I didn't realize just how many chimneys are in the older part of the city. Often a downtown house will have several instead of one. In the second photo I removed some of the background foliage as I wasn't satisfied with it and make some more using different shades of thread. There are still lots of stickpins visible in the photos.

Experimental Piece: Row Houses

This is an experimental piece I did a number of years ago. The house fabric is hand dyed. The clapboard lines were printed onto the white cotton after been treated with Bubble Jet Set 2000. The C. Jenkins Co. invented this solution so they could print neck ties from the computer.
The sky is hand dyed satin which gives it a nice shine. In this piece, the sky should have been stitched to prevent sagging. The trees are stitched green organza that has been cut out using a stencil burner. The window openings are satin stitched. Black cotton covered with a grey organza is used for the glass. Bits of lace represent curtains. The flowers are hand embroidered.

After working out the bugs in this wall hanging, I decided to make a larger piece with five houses. That piece was matted and framed. It is now part of the Newfoundland and Labrador Art Collection.

Work in Progress: Making Foliage

I spent most of the day working in my studio as I needed to make foliage for the background of my textile piece. I hooped some green organza, set the sewing machine on free-motion zigzag 2.0 and proceeded to free-motion small segments to represent tree foliage.  The bobbin had a mid green and the top thread was a darker shade. To get a variation in colour, small torn bits of green tulle were trapped and stitched onto the organza.
When the stitching was finished, I placed a piece of glass on my table and used a burning tool to cut the pieces out. I also turned on the overhead fan and opened the window.
I use various shades of green organza and will sometimes double it depending on the colour I want.
Since I'm not ready to show more of my piece, feast your eyes on the stunning landscapes of the following textile artists:

Scottish artist Moy Mackay
Abstract landscapes by Regina Grewe
Fiber artist, Jane A. Evans
Gilda Baron, author of The Art of Embroidered Flowers
Landscape quilts of Valerie Hearder
Landscapes by British artist, Wendy Dolan

New Work

Here's a couple of new images, in a series, that I've been working on. Cotton batiks are used for the 'clapboard' and window trim. The batik fabric a thinner but tighter weave and works well in this application. The window pane is made from two layers of grey organza fused with Misty Fuse and put on a black piece of cotton. Satin stitch was used on the window. The bushes are made from green organza that was stitched with free motion zigzag stitch. The daisies were hand stitched in a hoop and attached to the background giving a 3 dimensional appearance. The pink lupins were stitched using free motion on pink organza and attached to the backgound. These pieces will be matted and framed. They will be at my booth at the Fine Craft Design Fair, St. John's, November 4 - 8 at the Arts & Culture Centre.

I use a number of different fusibles in my art work but the misty fuse is soft and works well with organzas and other light weight fabrics. Whenever fusibles are used, stitching is added. Years ago I made a wall hanging for my sister for Christmas. As time was flying, I decided to do a wallhanging using all fusible interfacing. The piece was beautiful! Several years later, as I was helping her pack up to move, I came across this same hanging. Most of the pieces were falling off. So much for fusing! I made up my mind that in the future, anything fused would also have some stitching to hold it in place. I think it was a very wise decision. Who knows what affect climate has on fusible interfacings.